I have a 450 John Deere crawler loader with a straight bucket and a backhoe attachment. It is a pretty heavy piece of equipment and it has narrow street type tracks on it. I used it to clear trees and make a road for a piece of property I eventually want to build a small home on.
The property has a small ravine on it with very swampy ground (silt)in it but it does have clay on the upper end. I would just like to dam up the ravine a little bit for a small pond-mainly for visual effect. What I am concerned about is the weight of the mud and water in the bucket.
Is this type of equipment usefull for this or would a dozer with a blade be better. I don't think I can take the machine down in that ravine with the backhoe attachment on and not get stuck. Also I was concidering just having an overland spillway with no pipe but the water does flow most of the year.
Come on you guys with equipment experience give me some advice. The size of the pond will be about 1/2ac. but I can't afford to pay to have a pond dug by a contractor-might not do it at all but I have the equipment so I might try it if I could get some good advice. I need your imput.

mossie